June 21, 2024
What are ERC-20 and other token standards?
TL;DR Token standards are the set of rules that tokens and smart contracts must comply with to be functional on a specific blockchain. On a basic level, knowledge of token standards is important for trading and moving your assets to ensure that you will be able to send them to the correct networks and use them for their intended purposes. On a more advanced level, token standards are what developers use as a framework for building their decentralized applications (dApps). What are token standards? For those just starting out in crypto, it can be quite intimidating to encounter technical-sounding […]
April 12, 2023
Dai (DAI)–the ‘unbiased’ stablecoin
As an up-and-coming technology, cryptocurrencies still come with plenty of volatility as prices fluctuate along with demand and user adoption. This is why stablecoins were created to give users a more reliable way for transacting value exchanges through the blockchain. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged to a real-world currency (often the US dollar) and […]
February 20, 2023
Aave (AAVE) – a decentralized market maker protocol
After Bitcoin introduced the concept of a decentralized ledger system that requires no third party to run it, it was logical that the next developments would be to take many of our traditional financial instruments such as borrowing and lending–and figure out a way to execute them on a blockchain without having to resort to […]
January 18, 2023
Chainlink (LINK) – the oracle network guarding our smart contract data
For most Layer-1 blockchains, the data being managed and secured consists mostly of ledger entries–or rather, records for keeping track of who has how many tokens at any particular time. This is what preoccupies the validators for Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains, who are essentially in charge of authenticating token transfers from one wallet […]
January 6, 2023
Avalanche (AVAX) – scalability from a unique network architecture
Avalanche (AVAX) broke into the cryptocurrency scene in 2020, and was meant to rival Ethereum (ETH) as a scalable Layer-1 blockchain with smart contract functionality, capable of blazingly fast speeds at a low cost. Avalanche was built with the scale of global finance in mind, as the network can handle up to 4,500 transactions per […]
December 14, 2022
BADGER – bringing Bitcoin into the wild frontier of DeFi
You may wonder where Bitcoin (BTC) fits in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) given that the different decentralized applications (dApps) are built on other blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. Bitcoin after all, despite being the most popular cryptocurrency, has no smart contract functionality. This is where BadgerDAO (BADGER) comes in as a decentralized autonomous […]
November 18, 2022
1inch (1INCH) – the one-punch DEX aggregator
The world of decentralized finance (DeFi) can be very overwhelming at first given the options across numerous DeFi platforms and different blockchain networks. For example, you may want to buy a particular cryptocurrency, but are unsure of which platform to use given the varying exchange rates and available liquidity across different decentralized exchanges (DEXs). The […]
November 17, 2022
Compound (COMP) – borrowing and lending made easy
Borrowing and lending money through an intermediary or middleman, such as a bank, can often be tedious and difficult. This is because both transactions come with a lot of requirements and paperwork, barring many people, especially the unbanked, from accessing financial opportunities that would benefit them the most. In underprivileged countries in particular, the lack […]
November 8, 2022
Uniswap (UNI) – decentralized token swaps on Ethereum
When it comes to trading cryptocurrencies, centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs) are the most popular option for most users as for a small fee, they can provide readily available liquidity, real-time market charts and indicators as well as security measures in compliance with KYC (know-your-customer) laws. But for those who prefer the anonymity of direct peer-to-peer […]
September 15, 2022
What is yield farming?
TL;DR Yield farming is a crypto investment strategy designed to earn passive income through various decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols such as lending and providing liquidity, often “stacking” different protocols together to maximize returns. What is yield farming? More often, people think getting into cryptocurrency means one has to either engage in active trading or to just […]